How to configure mod_evasive to show HTTP status 429 instead of 403

Good news, with Version 1.3.15 http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx/2013-March/038306.html

we have the "limit_req_status" and "limit_conn_status" directives. I just tested them on Gentoo Linux (note that you need to have the modules limit_req and limit_con compiled in).

With these settings I think you can achieve what you've asked for:

limit_req_status 429;
limit_conn_status 429;

I have verified this with a quick:

ab2 -n 100000 -c 55 "http://127.0.0.1/api/v1

On which most request failed after activating the directive due to the high request rate and the configured limit in nginx:

limit_req zone=api burst=15 nodelay;

client denied by server configuration: /home/username/Development/PHP/foo.dev.com/public_html/

This make me think about a similar issue i had :

Ensure that www-data user has the x bit permission set for each folders on the path to /home/username/Development/PHP/foo.dev.com/public_html

Either by making www-data the owner of the folders : chown www-data

Or grant the x bit to others : chmod o+x

EDIT :

Finally i have been able to reproduce. It seems that %0 is not supported in <Directory> directive. I have corrected this adding a * instead :

UseCanonicalName Off
<VirtualHost *>
    VirtualDocumentRoot "/home/username/Development/PHP/%0/public_html/"
    <Directory "/home/username/Development/PHP/*/public_html/">
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>